Absinthium in a case of schizophrenia

de Jan Scholten

Absinthium
A young man of 20 years age is diagnosed schizophrenic. It started when he was 16 after an accident with his motorbike, where he was in coma for about 15 minutes and fractured his tibia and helmet completely. After the accident he got headaches and vomiting in the morning. After some 5 weeks his behaviour became weird. He got an aversion to parties, swimming pools and places where people were. Then he started to hide in cupboards, putting on strange clothes, sometimes in 4 layers over each other and regulate the traffic. After half a year he was diagnosed schizophrenic. Half a year later he also became aggressive, started to beat his father. A hospitalisation for 2 months was helpless. Chinese herbs and magnetising were no help either. He got a strong desire for alcohol and tobacco, he could drink a whole bottle of wine in 5 minutes. This gave a lot of fighting with his father, who had to lock all the alcoholic drinks behind doors. But he managed often to find the key and started to drink again. Due to the alcohol he started to get an swelling of the liver, low grade fever constantly and liquid behind the lungs. His memory was only working for the time before the accident, he remembered nothing of the 4 years after it.
He has the feeling of being persecuted. He can be aggressive, throwing with chairs and beat his father. Once they tried to control his anger, but he was so strong that 4 man had to keep him down in order to control him. He could throw with chairs and once threw an ashtray through a painting. He had a tendency to stand in the way of his father in a threatening way in a corridor, so that his father could hardly pass.
He doesn't work or study at all, he doesn't anything the whole day. He only does something when he gets alcohol or tobacco for it. He often looks in the mirror, thinking he's ugly. He wants to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes. After alcohol he's more active, talks more. When he keeps on drinking his language is completely gibberish.
His behaviour is difficult, sitting in his chair, laughing and giggling, not answering any question. He has strange remarks such as "I don't like that guy (himself), he's a killer, a lunatic". In the past he became angry when called schizophrenic. He says that he knows who is schizophrenic, but is not allowed to say it. One can feel his anger mixed with giggling in a kind of sardonic behaviour when not answering questions. As a interrogator one gets the feeling that it's better not to ask further in order not to provoke an outburst of rage. He feels very unpredictable and angry. He becomes angry when things don't go his way.
He has the delusion of being persecuted, dirty.
He likes blond girls, with big breasts.
He likes to draw caricatures and he is good at it.

Past history:
As a baby he had diarrhea, got dehydration and was hospitalised for a week. After this event he kept weeping and screaming and didn't want his mother near anymore for a year.
The mother had diabetes during pregnancy and had to follow a diabetic diet. The labour tended to start to early, but was in time. The membranes didn't break easily and the mother was bleeding much after birth.
He developed normally, was good in school.
As a child he was quiet as long as one didn't disturb him.
He is the youngest of 5 kids.

General:
Weather: -> warm weather.
Sweat: copious, offensive.
Time: < 5 PM.
Food: -> pasta, cheese, bacon, tomato, alcohol(3), tobacco(3).
Aversion: food that has to be chewed.
Sleep: difficult, sleeps with his clothes on and light has to be on, out of fear of the dark.

Analysis:
The "cause" of the psychosis is trauma, the accident with his motorbike. This is a strong theme of the Asteraceae. His behavior can be seen as a defense against a threat of the outside world, a threat of his integrity. This is the essence of the Asteraceae.
The theme of psychosis is strong in the subfamily of Artemisiae of the Asteraceae. It can be found under terms like: insanity, madness, mania and idiocy.
The Stage is 17. He behaves like an outcast that is unwanted. He is not the outcast that is still tolerated like in Stage 16, but threatened fully as an outcast like in Stage 17. We see Stage 17 also in symptoms like stealing, kleptomania, lying, taking what he needs without asking, threatening and cruelty. Stage 17 in the Artemisiae is Absinthium, also named Artemisia absinthium. In Absinthium we see also many other symptoms of this case: alcoholism, desire tobacco, cruelty and delusion persecuted.
A big differential diagnosis are the Solanaceae, especially Belladonna, Stramonium and Hyoscyamus. They also have psychosis, aggression, fear of darkness, alcoholism and delusion being persecuted. Both groups have the theme of threat. But in the Solanaceae there is the theme of fight or flight. They can flee. In the Artemisiae the possibility of escape is missing, the threat is continuous.

Follow-up:
After the remedy he did very well. After a month he felt much better and a lot of his psychotic behaviour was gone. Absinthium MK was repeated for 3 months, once a month. He did not come back after that. But after 2 years his grandmother came with another one of her grandchildren and told that he was completely cured and the diagnosis of schizophrenia was aborted. He live a normal live without medication and had a job.
Other remedies that he had had that had no effect: Lycopodium, Stramonium, Belladonna, Natrium sulphuricum, Helium, Bufo, Calendula. Stramonium and Belladonna are Solanaceae but had no effect.